This bronze sculpture pits three girls against two boys in an epic “battle of the sexes” game of tug of war…without a rope! Like most of the artist’s depictions of children, it is an ode to the carefree days of youth, and is very appropriate for its current location.

One of two sculptures by the artist on The Children’s Museum campus, Tug o’War was originally cast in 1988 and is one of the artist’s most popular pieces.  This version is dedicated “In Memory of Mary Jane Kruse Ruddell 1991.”

Glenna Goodacre (b. 1938) is a nationally-recognized figurative sculptor and the creator of many well-known bronze artworks, portraits, and monuments, including the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, DC; the Irish Memorial in Philadelphia; the over-life-sized, full-length portrait of Ronald Reagan at his memorial library; and the design for the Sacajawea U.S. dollar coin.  Many of her works exist in multiple casts across the country. She attended Colorado College and the Art Students’ League in New York City, intending to be a painter, but discovered sculpture while she was there. A native of Texas, Goodacre has been an academician of the National Academy of Design since 1994 and a fellow of the National Sculpture Society since 1981. She currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and retired from sculpting in 2016 after destroying the molds for all her previous works so they could not be reissued after her death.